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H.L. Mencken made Andy Rooney look like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Both gave curmudgeons a bad name. But Andy was shrew; he played to Middle Americans. He would say something like, "Have you ever wondered why we collect string?"  and they would swoon. He was one of them, they thought. I knew Andy. He wasn't one of them and I suspect he didn't think much of them. Mencken, on the other hand, made no secret of his disdain for ordinary Americans, whom he saw as hopeless dolts.

Mencken, a Baltimore newspaperman, once said this about his fellow Americans:

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I knowand I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help mehas ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people."

Pretty cold. But given that the great masses of plain people elected Barack Obama twice, maybe H.L. was onto something.

They elected him the first time because he was a historical figure. He wasn't Mondale or Dukakis or Gore or Kerry. He was young and cool and black and liberal. And Americans wanted to make history.

But the second time around? Unemployment was high, a big majority of Americans thought we were on the wrong track, the economic recovery was anemic, and most Americans had little confidence that things would get better anytime soon.

Yet he won again. So how do we explain it? Yes, you could pin it on a weak Republican candidate, but maybe Mencken was right. Maybe Americans  or enough of them anyway  are just not that smart.

I've been thinking about this the past few days as I, along with everyone else, watched how the president has bungled the Syrian situation. First, during his campaign for re-election, he needlessly draws a red line, warning Syria that the use of chemical weapons is something the United States would not tolerate.

So far, there have been no repercussions.

Then, a week or so ago, after the world witnessed gruesome videos of dead children who had been exposed to poison gas, presumably the work of the Syrian regime, Secretary of State John Kerry makes a forceful statement about Bashar al-Assad's immorality and makes clear that military action is coming.

Twenty-four hours later the president, who said he didn't need Congressional approval for a military attack, decides he wants Congress in on the decision.The president says he still wants to attack Syria, but that there's no rush.

John Kerry, mindful that Congress is as war-weary as the American people, explains that any U.S. action would be an "unbelievably small, limited kind of effort," prompting groans and guffaws from all over the place.

Enter Vladimir Putin, who comes riding to Mr. Obama's rescue  rescue, that is, from a certain no vote in the House and perhaps another no vote in the Democratically-controlled Senate. Putin pushes the idea  originally put forth, tongue in check, by Secretary of State Kerry  that Russia would work with the Syrian regime to put their chemical arsenal under international control "for subsequent destruction."

The result of all this is a president who comes off looking like more like a community organizer than a commander-in-chief. I keep waiting for Ted Mack to come out and say: Welcome friends to the latest edition of the Amateur Hour.

At heart, Mr. Obama may or may not be a nice guy. Reasonable people may disagree on that. But when it comes to being president, he's clearly in way over his head.

In a piece for Commentary that runs under the headline, "The Collapse of the Obama Presidency," Peter Wehner makes that very point. This is how he puts it:

"How bad has 2013 been for Barack Obama? Let us count the ways.

"In the first year of his second term, the president has failed on virtually every front. He put his prestige on the line to pass federal gun-control legislationand lost. He made climate change a central part of his inaugural addressand nothing has happened. The president went head-to-head with Republicans on sequestrationand he failed. He's been forced to delay implementation of the employer mandate, a key feature of the Affordable Care Act. ObamaCare is more unpopular than ever, and it's turning out to be a 'train wreck' (to quote Democratic Senator Max Baucus) in practice. The most recent jobs report was the worst in a year, with the Obama recovery already qualifying as a historically weak one. Immigration reform is going nowhere. And then there's Syria, which has turned out to be an epic disaster."

Barack Obama is the man who told us that his candidacy would "ring out across this land as a hymn that will heal this nation, repair this world, make this time different than all the rest." No wonder his acolytes thought he was the messiah.

So why do I think that if he were constitutionally able to run for a third term, despite everything, there's a good chance he'd win? Let's turn again to Mr. Mencken and that observation he made many years ago for an answer.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I knowand I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help mehas ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people."

Or to put it in a slightly different way: Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

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JWR contributor Bernard Goldberg, the television news reporter and author of several bestselling books, among them, Bias, a New York Times number one bestseller about how the media distort the news. He is widely seen as one of the most original writers and thinkers in broadcast journalism. Mr. Goldberg covered stories all over the world for CBS News and has won 10 Emmy awards for excellence in journalism. He now reports for the widely acclaimed HBO broadcast Real Sports.

He is a graduate of Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey and a member of the school's Hall of Distinguished Alumni and proprietor of BernardGoldberg.com.

Previously:

•09/03/13: Loose Talk about Red Lines May Give Iran a Green Light
•09/02/13: MLK Knew the Difference Between Nooses and Handcuffs
•08/27/13: If President Obama Had a Son He Might Look Like . . .
•08/20/13: Do We Really Want Another Coronation in 2016?
•08/12/13: Wanna Know What's Wrong With Journalism?
•08/06/13: CNN Finds Benghazi Terrorist Suspect; FBI Doesn't
•07/30/13: Don't Blame Me --- Blame Those Phony Scandals
•07/23/13: What President Obama Left Out of His Talk on Race
•07/17/13: Do We Need Affirmative Action for Conservative Journalists?
•07/15/13: Zimmerman is Not Guilty . . . What About the Media?
•07/09/13: Should We Ever Punish Journalists for Publishing Secret Information?
•06/25/13: Re-Defining Racial Discrimination in America
•06/18/13: Freedom in an Age of Terrorism
•06/11/13: Which is More Honest: Roller Derby or the Obama Administration?
•05/30/13: Did Eric Holder Lie to Congress?
•05/23/13: How Do We Know Fox reporter Isn't a Commie Spy?
•05/21/13: How High Does the IRS Scandal Go?
•05/14/13: When Is a Scandal Not A Scandal?
•05/09/13: Jodi Arias, Cable TV, and a Nation Fascinated by Shiny Objects
•05/03/13: Global Warming May Lead to Sex --- for Money
•04/30/13: Of Red Lines, Game Changers and U.S. Credibility
•04/23/13: The Boston Marathon Bombings and the Importance of Getting the Story Right
•04/15/13: Media Ignore Mass Murder Trial
•04/09/13: Obama Compliments a Woman; Feminists Offended
•04/04/13: When the Government Goes Bankrupt
•03/18/13: Don't Blame Him --- He's Only the President
•03/12/13: Sun Still Rises After Sequester So Prez Comes Up With Plan B To Insure Hardship
•03/11/13: A President We Can't Be Proud Of
•03/05/13: New Poll: Nation on Wrong Track . . . So Which Party Gets the Blame?
•02/26/13: A President Who Is Rooting for Chaos
•02/22/13: Obama: The World Is About to End . . . (Or Not)
•02/19/13: Rubio Reaches for Water --- Crime of the Century
•02/13/13: Drones, Double Standards and the So-Called Mainstream Media
•02/06/13: One Small Step for Man, One Giant Step for Nut Jobs
•01/30/13: Obama and Fox: Here We Go Again
•01/25/13: CBS News Political Director to Barack Obama: Destroy the GOP
•01/21/13: Just a Thought . . .
•01/15/13: Al Gore is No Run of the Mill Hypocrite
•01/14/13: The High Cost of Obama's America
•01/08/13: Another Reason Libs Make Me Laugh
•01/07/13: Al Gore Hates Oil But Loves Oil Money
•12/31/12: Memo to GOP: Make Obama Own the Mess He's Created
•12/24/12: GOP In More Trouble Than They Probably Know
•12/18/12: Taking on Guns Will Be the Easy Part
•12/17/12: When Obama's Words Mean Nothing
•12/10/12: Do You Believe in Magic?
•12/04/12: Obama and the Dolts Deserve Each Other
•11/27/12: When the Ends Justify the Meanness
•11/20/12: Our Mesmerizer-in-Chief
•11/19/12: This Pretty Much Sums It Up . . .
•11/12/12: Santa Claus and the GOP Civil War
•11/07/12: Obama Wins . . . and Loses
•11/01/12: Out on a Limb, Predicting A Big Victory For . . .
•11/01/12: Should Mitt Talk to Bill?
•10/30/12: Really Dumb Conservatives . . .
•10/23/12: Debate #3: How Much Does Foreign Policy Matter If You Can't Find a Job?
•10/22/12: When Conservatives Are As Dopey as Liberals . . .
•10/19/12: Journalists' Who Don't Even Try to Hide Their Bias
•10/17/12: Obama Stopped the Bleeding --- But Was That Enough to Change the Momentum?
•10/15/12: No Winner in the Debate --- But Maybe a Loser
•10/08/12: The October Surprise
•10/04/12: Civil War in the GOP Could Go Nuclear on Nov 7
•10/01/12: Even If He Wins, Obama Will Lose
•09/27/12: Obama Picks Up a Crucial Demographic
•09/26/12: If Obama Thinks He Inherited a Mess Four Years Ago . . .
•09/24/12: A Good Way to Kill Free Speech
•08/30/12: Facts I Have Uncovered About the Real Mitt Romney
•08/23/12: Hope and Change, R.I.P.s
•08/16/12: Who's Smarter: Joe Biden or Yogi Berra?
•08/13/12: His Silence Makes Him Complicit
•08/07/12: Did You Know that Harry Reid Got Rich Pimping Out HOs?
•08/02/12: Like Birds on a Telephone Wire
•07/30/12: What Me Worry? YES!
•07/26/27: The Mystery Continues --- A Tale of Two Polls
•07/16/27: We've Set a Low Bar for 'Courage'
•07/11/27: Will Class Warfare Work?
•07/09/27: A Brave New World
•07/02/27: Now the Fun Really Starts
•06/19/27: You Can't Make This Stuff Up . . .
•06/19/12: I Would Have Fired Him Before He Got Back to the Office
•06/12/12: Time to Crush the Myth about Gender Pay Inequality
•06/06/12: The Desperate Campaign of Barack Obama
•06/01/12: Hey Fatso! Listen Up!
•05/25/12: Going After the Stupid Vote
•05/22/12: The X Factor(s)!
•05/15/12: Obama Has a Halo; Newsweek Has No Shame
•05/10/12: Authoritarians on Campus
•05/08/12: Obama's Path to Victory: Divide and Conquer
•05/01/12: President Cool Meets Reality
•04/25/12: Why Media Bias Matters
•04/17/12: NYT: At It Again
•04/13/12: Kissing up to the Rev. Al
•04/10/12: This Just In: War Breaks Out --- Thank You, Lord
•04/03/12: In Cold Blood?
•03/27/12: Trayvon Martin and Media Hypocrisy
•03/26/12: Time to Go, Rick
•03/22/12: Obama's Mantra: Don't Blame Me
•03/19/12: The U.N. Human Rights Council --- and other Jokes
•03/13/12: Bias in the News: Blame it on Their Zip Code
•03/06/12: Thank Heaven for Rich People --- a Second Look
•02/29/12: Some Free Advice for the Republican Field
•02/28/12: Do We Have a Right to Lie?
•02/16/12: Can Obama Win Re-Election by Promising Free Stuff?
•02/06/12: The 5 Stages of Mitt
•02/02/12: Florida Has Spoken; Cue the Fat Lady
•01/30/12: The Other Global Warming Story
•01/26/12: They See Racists Everywhere . . .
•01/24/12: The Arrogant and Clueless Mainstream Media
•01/23/12: Gingrich Wins SC --- Media Help Big Time
•01/18/12: A New Entry for 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America
•01/12/12: The Dream Ticket Could Be a Conservative Nightmare
•01/11/12: Now 'Anybody But Romney' Has a Name
•12/30/11: I Have a Confession to Make . . .
•12/27/11: Know When to Hold 'em and Know When to Fold 'em
•12/20/11: NBC News, the KKK and the State of Journalism
•12/19/11: Mitt and Newt: Two Rich Guys Arguing Over Money
•12/13/11: Donald Trump Is the Greatest; Just Ask Him
•12/12/11: Rob Peter to Pay Paul: Bad Economics! Good Politics?
•12/07/11: Yeah . . . and Fish Don't Know They're Wet, Either
•12/06/11: Did the Media Play Fair with Herman Cain?
•12/05/11: Obama to Blue-Collar America: Adios!
•11/29/11: We Can Stop the Crazy Train Before It Gets to Greece
•11/22/11: Who Can Beat Obama?
•11/15/11: The Dumbest Media Question I've Ever Heard
•11/09/11: What If Herman Cain Did It?
•11/08/11: What If Herman Cain Were a Lib?
•11/02/11: Who Can Beat Obama?
•11/01/11: We're Approaching the Tipping Point
•10/25/11: A Response to the Angry Purists
•10/18/11: They're Waiting for Reagan to Hit the Campaign Trail
•10/12/11: Read This!!! --- But Only If You Have Nothing Better To Do
•10/04/11: Can Obama Win Re-Election?
•09/27/11: It's NOT the Economy Stupid, It's Theology
•09/20/11: Bad News on the Doorstep
•09/09/11: Hypocrisy!
•09/06/11: Back to the Future
•08/24/11: Hillary vs. Obama in 2012? It'll Never Happen --- I Don't Think
•08/22/11: Warning: Conservatives May Be Harmful to Your Mental Health
•08/17/11: Warren Buffett, Coddled Billionaire
•08/11/11: Too Much Balance in the Media?
•08/04/11: All Aboard the Crazy Train
•08/01/11: Liberal Hate Speech
•07/25/11: With All Due Respect, Go Fly a Kite
•07/20/11: Who Is A Natural Born Citizen?
•07/18/11: Guess Who's Not Paying Their Fair Share
•07/12/11: Against More Taxes? You May Be a Terrorist!
•07/11/11: Casey Anthony: The TV Show
•07/06/11: Standards and Double Standards at MSNBC
•06/29/11: Is Jon Stewart A Racist?
•06/21/11: Let's Play the Race Card --- Just for Fun Of Course
•06/20/11: Sarah Palin and Weiner's Weiner
•06/03/11: Memo to GOP: Turn Mr. Obama into Mr. Yesterday
•05/20/11: I Get Letters From People Who Should Be Locked Up
•05/09/11: Is Torture Ever Justified?•05/02/11: The Promiscuous Use of the R Word•04/19/11: The Man Behind the Million Dollar Smile•04/12/11: What's the Difference Between Libs in Politics and Libs in the Media?•04/08/11: An Idea Whose Time Has Come  and Gone•03/28/11: The Pundits Are Driving Me Crazy --- And You Thought Qadaffi Is Nuts•03/14/11: No Liberal Bias at NPR  Just Ask NPR•03/10/11: The media's frustration •03/01/11: Progressives Lost in Time . . .•02/23/11: The Lamestreams Strike Again --- This Time in Madison•02/03/11: You MUST Own a Gun --- Or Else!•01/20/11: It Was Horrible, I tell you … HORRIBLE!•01/11/11: Here We Go Again . . .•01/06/11: You Go, Oprah•12/28/10: A Year-Ender --- The MSM and Obama's Fall from Grace
•12/14/10: Thank Heaven for Rich People